1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a heat exchanger of a cooling/heating system, and more particularly to a spiral heat exchange device having improved cooling efficiency in which a plurality of spiral pipes connected to an inlet pipe for introducing a coolant are formed and spirally wound with a gradually increasing diameter toward a blast fan and the coolant is discharged through a discharge pipe so that the wind generated from the blast fan is evenly spread across the spiral pipes.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally, a cooling device liquefies a coolant by compressing the coolant at high pressure by an outdoor heat exchanger driven by a motor, instantaneously evaporating the coolant by vaporizing the coolant in an indoor heat exchanger while moving the coolant condensed at high pressure into a pipe having a small diameter so as to generate cool air by lowering the temperature, and then discharging the cool air indoors.
The coolant vaporized as heat absorbed by the indoor heat exchanger is moved from a compressor to the outdoor heat exchanger to be condensed and liquefied while emitting heat outside, whereby the cooling device continuously conducts its cooling activity through the above procedure.
On the other hand, recently, cooling devices are being used for both cooling and heating purposes. This cooling/heating device is operated in two ways. The cooling/heat device absorbs outdoor heat and then emits the heat indoors during heating operation, and absorbs indoor heat and emits it outdoors during a cooling operation. Such a cooling device is used in an air conditioner, a refrigerator, or Kimchi refrigerator.
FIG. 1 shows a conventional cooling/heating system, FIG. 2 is a perspective view showing the configuration of a conventional outdoor heat exchanger, FIG. 3 shows the used state of a conventional outdoor heat exchanger, and FIG. 4 shows the conventional outdoor heat exchanger adapted to Kimchi refrigerator.
As for the configuration of the cooling/heating system of FIG. 1, the cooling/heating system includes a compressor 14 for compressing a coolant moving through a pipe conduit at high pressure, an outdoor heat exchanger (or, a condenser) 15 for condensing the coolant compressed in the compressor 14 to emit the hot air outside, an expansion valve 4 for instantaneously expanding the coolant condensed in the outdoor heat exchanger 15, and an indoor heat exchanger (or, an evaporator) 2 for evaporating the coolant expanded in the expansion valve 4 to evaporate the outside heat and decrease the temperature.
As shown in FIG. 2, the conventional outdoor heat exchanger 15 has a coolant transfer pipe 8 for exchanging a hot air through which an inlet pipe 5 for introducing coolant is connected into a discharge pipe 6 for discharging the coolant, being piled in multiple layers to form a hexahedral shape. Between the layers of the coolant transfer pipe 8, a horizontal connector 7 is formed from fine wedded to help the heat discharge of the coolant pipe 8 and horizontally supporting the coolant transfer pipe 8.
In addition, a vertical connector 9 is fixed to connect the horizontal connector 7 vertically.
On the other hand, as shown in FIG. 3 showing a used state of the outdoor heat exchanger 15, the coolant introduced through the inlet pipe 5 moves through the coolant pipe 8 piled up in multiple layers.
At this time, a blast fan 16 installed to a bottom plate 13 using a support stand 18 is rotated by a driving motor 19 so that a cool air is supplied to the coolant pipe 8. Thus, the hot air of the coolant moving through the coolant transfer pipe 8 is discharged outside and then is condensed.
On the other hand, as shown in FIG. 4 showing the outdoor heat exchanger 15 adapted to a Kimchi refrigerator, a door 11 is pivotably mounted to an upper portion of the Kimchi refrigerator using a hinge. Thus, the door 11 is opened or closed when a user puts in or takes out food. In addition, a manipulating panel for inputting various selections such as maturation time for Kimchi taste is attached to an upper front side of the Kimchi refrigerator 10. In the lower portion of the Kimchi refrigerator, a machine room 12 is provided so that various mechanical parts configuring the cooling device are installed.
At this time, on the bottom plate 13 of the machine room 12, the outdoor heat exchanger 15 for cooling and condensing a coolant compressed at high temperature and high pressure, including the compressor 14 for compressing the coolant.
In addition, a blast fan 16 for forcibly transferring a circumferential air according to the operation of the driving motor 19 is installed in front of the outdoor heat exchanger 15 in order to radiate the heat of the outdoor heat exchanger 15.
Thus, the coolant compressed in the compressor 14 is sent to the outdoor heat exchanger 15 through a coolant pipe 17, and the coolant condensed by the blast fan 16 is supplied through the coolant pipe 17 to an evaporator (not shown) wound around a storage container at an upper portion in order to keep the food in the refrigerator fresh.
However, as described above, the conventional outdoor heat exchanger is configured so that the coolant transfer pipe for moving the coolant from the inlet pipe to the discharge pipe is stacked to use a constant amount of space, the horizontal position of this coolant transfer pipe is supported and fixed using the horizontal connector, and this horizontal connector is again fixed using the vertical connector. Thus, the conventional outdoor heat exchanger has problems in that its manufacture cost is higher and manufacturing efficiency is lower due to its complicated structure.
In addition, due to the configuration of the conventional outdoor heat exchanger, the wind generated from the blast fan is not evenly supplied to the entire coolant pipe, thereby sharply decreasing the cooling efficiency. Thus, in order to achieve satisfactory cooling efficiency, it is required to increase the entire area of the outdoor heat exchanger or enlarge the capacity of the blast fan.